Tag: Dario Mollo

I have been a fan of Tony Martin since he first joined Black Sabbath back in 1987, and I have picked up several of his lesser known releases (Empire, Phenomena) along the way. Somehow, I have missed the CD’s he has put out with Dario Mollo.
Judging from the sounds on the latest Mollo Martin CD, The Third Cage, I need to rectify that situation soon.

Tony Martin is by far the least heralded of Black Sabbath’s singers. That is a shame as he delivered some great vocals for Black Sabbath, and continues to do so for Mollo / Martin.

The Third Cage comes out of the gate firing with the hard rocker, “Wicked World”. “Wicked World” pushes Tony Martin to his vocal peak, and Dario Mollo delivers some heavy licks that leave me wanting to hear more!

“Cirque Du Freak” has this odd keyboard/synthesizer that gives the beginning of the song, an industrial feel. Luckily this doesn’t plague the song, as Martin delivers what could be his best vocal on this album.

“Oh My Soul” is a song that seems tailor made for rock radio. On this slow brooding tune, Tony Martin practically sounds like Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.) on this song, and that is pretty good company to be in, in my opinion. “Oh My Soul” is definitely one of the highlights on The Third Cage.

“One of the Few” falls into the AOR/Melodic Rock territory. Meldodic rock fans are going to eat this tune up. This catchy tune has it all…. great guitar work from Dario Mallo, and another outstanding vocal from Tony Martin.

“Still In Love With You” is another heavy rocker in the vein of Dio era Black Sabbath. This song is heavy, dark, and powerful. Mollo’s guitar riffs in this song are crazy good!

I have mixed feelings about the song “Can’t Stay Here”. The vocals are great, the guitar work is solid, but this song needed a little bit of something to take it over the top. It isn’t filler, but it could be much better.

“Wardance” is a bit of a grower. This metal anthem takes a couple of spins to fully appreciate. I can see this song being done in a live setting with thousands of fans screaming War…..Dance!

“Don’t Know What It is About You” is a melodic rock song that has parts that remind me of a heavy Enuff Z’nuff song. The background vocals on this song are kind of weak, and that brings the song down in my opinion.

“Blind Fury” is another Metal Anthem that is catchy as hell. This is another highlight on The Third Cage.

Tony Martin’s voice on “Violet Moon” reminds me a lot Oni Logan, and as a result, this song kind of sounds like a Lynch Mob tune. This is a cool song to close out The Third Cage with.

Overall I enjoyed this CD quite a bit. This is another strong effort from Dario Mollo and Tony Martin. If you are a Dio, Black Sabbath, or Tony Martin fan, you gotta check out The Third Cage. I think you are going to love it. I recommended it!

Dario Mollo & Tony Martin resurrect The Cage with the release of the long awaited third album in January !

Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of the long awaited MOLLO MARTIN new album entitled “The Third Cage” on January 20th 2012 in Europe and January 24th in North America.

Dario Mollo and Tony Martin first got together when the Italian guitar player/produced and composer needed the right singer after the put together a new set of songs in the late 90’s. The former Black Sabbath singer came about on a suggestion from producer Kit Woolven (UFO, Thin Lizzy) with whom Dario Mollo had been working during his Crossbones years. Tony Martin wrote lyrics and melodies for the amazing tracks that Dario had already assembled, and thus The Cage was born.

The first album, released independently in 1999, gained a great success among the Hard Rock fans and the critics and Dario started finally to make himself a reputation over the international markets. This debut was later followed by an equally acclaimed second album in 2002.

Mollo has been very busy since then, releasing one more album with the Voodoo Hill project with Glenn Hughes. He then toured Europe with Graham Bonnet and Don Airey. After Don became a permanent Deep Purple member, Dario and Graham Bonnet put up Elektric Zoo, touring Europe again, performing songs from Rainbow, Alcatrazz, Voodoo Hill and The Cage. In 2008 Dario released an album with the more alt-rock Italian band Noize Machine, before getting again to work on a new set of Hard Rocking songs for a new record with Tony Martin.

“As usual we are 50/50 partners”, explains Mollo. “I write all the music and Tony then contributes with the melodies and lyrics. We also try together different structures of the tracks and we rearrange them to better fit the vocal parts. Then I go ahead and take care of the entire production of the album, tracking, mixing and mastering”.

The songwriting, the sound and the video production of this new project are absolutely stunning and show the great skills that Mollo has developed in the past few years. All Hard Rock lovers should simply not miss this record which bravely melts several influences in a cutting edge release. “There are much better songs, performances and production on this album, plus we will finally bring this project live out there: we have a lot of great songs to perform to our loyal fans, we look forward to meet them” concludes Dario Mollo.

“The Third Cage” will include the following tracks: Wicked World; Cirque Du Freak; Oh My Soul; One Of The Few; Still In Love With You; Can’t Stay Here; Wardance; Don’t Know What It Is About You; Blind Fury; Violet Moon; Wicked World (Videoclip).